Dr Achmet: ‘Quack and Fraud’ or Benefactor of Eighteenth-Century Dublin?

The book is about Eleftherios Venizelos, the great Greek leader of the modern period, his achievements and personality. It addresses Greek nationalism, political leadership, and Venizelos's influence on Greek history and politics. He dominated Greece from 1910 to 1936. He worked for the expansion of Greek territory to include as many Greek communities as possible (the 'Great Idea'). Also for reform and modernization of Greek institutions, a more just society, and to bring Greece closer to western Europe. The author describes his charisma, liberalism, and decisive role in the constitutional and political reforms of his early administrations, leading to the Balkan Wars in which Greece's territory and population were almost doubled. A second volume will deal with the First World War, the division of the country into hostile Venizelist and anti-Venizelist camps in the so-called national schism, the Asia Minor catastrophe and Venizelos's subsequent career. The author states his personal interest, symbolized by the British Embassy Athens, formerly Venizelos's house, where he served as British ambassador.

The local bases of global public health: complexities and opportunities

The origin of the concept of the post of Medical Officer of Health has been dealt with in detail in the previous chapter. The first time I personally came across a real live example of such an individual coincided with my having to confront the reality that the onset of the Second World War was imminent. It was August 1939, I was 9 years old and I was being medically examined by Dr Harry Rae, the well-known Medical Officer of Health of the City of Aberdeen, in order to obtain an FFI (Freedom from Infection) Certificate prior to being evacuated forthwith to the United States to live with my father’s aunt in Buffalo, New York State. The FFI examination was a rather cursory affair, searching for skin infections, scalp infestation etc. and the chest was auscultated. An additional embarrassment was the inclusion of a brief test for hernia. When Dr Rae said “Cough” I thought he was asking a question and replied in the negative, earning a sharp prod from my mother! It was 17 years before I saw Dr Rae again, this time as a visiting lecturer on my postgraduate course at Aberdeen University. (This early encounter was to have a profound impact on my own subsequent career in public health, as the image with which I was confronted was that of a white-coated, stethoscope-wielding clinician, carrying out medical examinations on individuals just like any family doctor or hospital specialist. This professional role model was the one I instinctively adopted in due course, as I moved through the grades of the public health service, retaining personal clinical responsibility at all times for infectious disease control, even alongside my formal management responsibilities as head of department, until I retired. To have given up this particular branch of clinical work completely would, for me, have removed a major part of the satisfaction of being a public health doctor.)

PurposeThis paper seeks to make people aware of the condition of Chinese cultural information resources sharing through the case of the National Cultural Information Resources Sharing Project (NCIRSP). The paper seeks to provide an overview of NCIRSP, and summarize its achievements.Design/methodology/approachThis paper first indicates that cultural information resources sharing is a kind of special resources sharing, and NCIRSP in China is a good example of the realization of this kind of resources sharing. The author introduces NCIRSP in general, and analyzes the operation and its achievements. The author considers that there are some problems which exist in the practice of NCIRSP which will hinder its development and proposes measures to solve those problems.FindingsNCIRSP is a project which is advanced by the Chinese government as well as governments at other levels, which means the project has a strong organization and powerful support. The operation of NCIRSP is made up by four aspects: the network, the construction of digital resources, the implementation of technology, and the websites of services. These four aspects determine the effective operation of NCIRSP and promote the project to make great achievements. Meanwhile, there are problems which hinder NCIRSP from developing further, including the unbalanced collection of cultural information resources in various areas, the scattered storage of resources, and the absence of a sophisticated training mechanism for professionals engaged in the project. Measures to solve the problems are suggested.Originality/valueNCIRSP is an innovative project supported by the Government of China, even though it is rarely known about by people outside China. This paper introduces NCIRSP in detail, and makes people aware of the situation of cultural information resources sharing in China.

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The diet industry feeds on the hopes and the fears of those who need-or think that they need-to lose weight. Since the publication of the first known diet book in 1864, a host of sanctimonious preachers and self-proclaimed experts-often overweight themselves-have stoked fears of obesity effectively for both profit and political power, none more so than former surgeon general C. Everett Koop. In Public Health Profiteering, James T. Bennett and Thomas J. DiLorenzo offer a scathing and irreverent assessment of Koop's public and private career showing how a brilliant pediatric surgeon has evolved into a self-seeking and hypocritical public scold.During his term as Surgeon General under the Bush administration, Koop, enamored of the military trappings of title and uniform, saw himself as leading an army of public health administrators against an enemy. As often as not, the enemy took on the disquieting countenance of the American people. In Koop's view they were stupid, improvident, feckless, unable to make the simplest decisions about their lives. As Bennett and DiLorenzo show, he used his position as a bully pulpit for intemperate attacks on the tobacco and alcohol industries and to irresponsibly exaggerate the dangers of obesity. While taking a prohibitionist line, Koop himself smoked a pipe, drank martinis, and weighed in at a hefty 210 pounds. Although Koop claimed that he would never cash in on his office, his subsequent career tells a far different story. He has lobbied, hawked, and endorsed products for a host of firms: Wyeth Ayerst (makers of the dubious diet drug Fen-Phen), Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Intel, Neurocrine, Kelloggs, BioPure, and many others.Lively in style and carefully researched, Public Health Profiteering will be of interest to health policy specialists, political scientists, economists, and media analysts.James T. Bennett is professor of economics at George Mason University. He is founder and editor of the Journal of Labor Research and has authored many books and articles, including Health Research Charities: Image and Reality and Official Lies: How Washington Misleads Us, co-authored with Thomas DiLorenzo.Thomas DiLorenzo is professor of economics at the Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola College in Baltimore. He has co-authored many books and is widely published in academic journals as well as the popular press, including the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

“Red is not the only color of a rainbow”: The making and resistance of the “MSM” subject among gay men in China

Harold Varmus’s memoir, The art and politics of science, chronicles the pathway by which he became a scientist, the research endeavor that led to his sharing with J. Michael Bishop the 1989 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, and his subsequent career as NIH Director. It should appeal to biomedical scientists, young people contemplating or beginning a career in research, and academicians considering a move into scientific politics. In common scientific parlance, Varmus would be described as a late bloomer; he obtained a master’s degree in English and completed medical school and two years as a medical resident without any research experience. Like many of his contemporaries, including this reviewer, the existence of a doctor’s draft served as a stimulus for Varmus to seek alternatives to military service, and he obtained an appointment to the NIH through the US Public Health Service. There he had the good fortune of almost immediate scientific success in the laboratory of Ira Pastan, where he used molecular hybridization techniques to demonstrate that gene expression in the lac operon in Escherichia coli is regulated by changes in mRNA transcription. This work was presented at a Cold Spring Harbor Symposium, and his career as a scientist was launched. Through night school courses at the NIH, Varmus became interested in viruses that cause cancer, particularly RNA tumor viruses, and in 1970 he became a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Mike Bishop, then a young virologist at UCSF, and subsequently a colleague, collaborator, and close friend. The team led by Bishop and Varmus made one of the fundamental discoveries in modern biomedical science, namely identification of proto-oncogenes in animals, which can be transformed by tumor viruses into oncogenes. Here, Varmus systematically delineates the background of the experiments, the study design, how one experiment led to another, the methodological problems encountered, and how the problems were resolved. His description of the scientific aftermath and clinical implications of the work is particularly interesting. The same scientific saga is also covered in Bishop’s memoir, How to win the Nobel prize (1). Both books tell a story that makes a strong case for scientific partnerships. As pointed out by Vera John-Steiner, such partnerships are effective because any individual, no matter how gifted, can realize only a fraction of human potential, and collaborations broaden, refine, change, and expand the possibilities of individuals (2). In 1993, Varmus left his UCSF professorship to become NIH Director, moving from administrating a million-dollar research budget in his own laboratory to managing one of eleven billion dollars a year. He assumed the job at a time when appropriations for the NIH had plateaued. During his tenure, the NIH budget increased significantly (largely because of his effectiveness with congressional committees), research in HIV/AIDS was broadened, sequencing of the genomes of humans and other species was promoted, the study section system for peer review was strengthened, clinical research was invigorated, and the NIH intramural research programs were enhanced. The net consequence was revival of the nation’s demoralized biomedical research community, for which he was widely revered by scientists and politicians. Varmus was the subject of a laudatory article in The New Yorker that highlighted his effectiveness in playing the symbolic, public role of NIH Director as an advocate of science (3). He was arguably the most effective director after James A. Shannon, who organized the NIH’s modern structure more than fifty years ago. Consequently, in 1999, the news that Varmus was stepping down from the most important job in biomedical research after only six years was met with widespread dismay within the biomedical research community. In the memoir, he makes it clear that one factor in his decision was the series of distractions and harassments that went with the job. With the exception of the politicization of stem cell research, none of these hassles was very important, but cumulatively they took a toll. As Harry Truman might have said, he decided to get out of the kitchen — to the detriment of the NIH, which underwent a retrogression after he left. This scenario points to a problem when scientists enter the public arena: unlike professional politicians, we are not used to the rough and tumble of political life. The last section of the book is devoted to two of Varmus’s long-term interests, the globalization of medical research in underdeveloped countries and the promotion of reform in scientific publication. In brief, Harold Varmus has written an engaging book that convincingly portrays his larger-than-life personality.

This study investigates the subsequent careers of the Senior House Officers (SHOs) who have passed through the Leicestershire SHO training scheme in public health medicine since its inception in 1981 and their views of the scheme. Postal questionnaires were sent to past and current SHOs, using addresses compiled from personnel records, the Medical Directory and the General Medical Council Medical Register. One reminder letter was sent to non-responders. Of the 21 past SHOs, one is now a consultant and four are currently trainees in public health medicine. Other past SHOs have followed diverse careers but the largest group are now in general practice. The four past SHOs who are now trainees in public health gained no further clinical experience before obtaining registrar or lecturer posts. All past SHOs responded favourably when asked about the benefits of the scheme regardless of their subsequent career choice. The continuing need for high-calibre recruits to the specialty and the favourable response from past SHO trainees suggests that this scheme, and no doubt other similar schemes, should be making their benefits known to a wider audience.

fOHN SHAW BILLINGS: FORGOTTEN HERO OF AMERICAN MEDICINE A. MC GEHEE HARVEY* It seems to me that this school should aim to produce quality, and not quantity; and that the seal of its diploma should be a guarantee that its possessor is not only a well-educated physician, in the fullest sense of the word, but that he has learned to think and investigate for himself, and is therefore prepared to undertake, without danger offailurefrom not knowing how to begin, the study of some of the problems still awaiting solution. [John Shaw Billings] When John Shaw Billings died in New York City on March 11, 1913, the newspaper notices of his death gave principal attention to his 17 years of pioneer work in the development of the New York Public Library , of which he was director. Little notice was paid to the things for which he should be best remembered by all physicians and scientists. He was the most eminent bibliographer in the history of medicine; he planned and organized the greatest of medical libraries and designed some of the finest hospitals and laboratories of modern times. He was equally eminent as sanitarian, statistician, war surgeon, and medical historian ; by all measurements he was one of the ablest of civil administrators . William Henry Welch placed the work of Billings in perspective when he spoke as follows: "I have been asked on more than one occasion what have been the really great contributions of this country to medical knowledge. I have given this matter some thought and think that four should be named: (1) the discovery of anesthesia, (2) the discovery of insect transmission of disease, (3) the development of the modern Public Health Laboratory, and all that the term implies, (4) the Army Medical Library and its Index Catalogue, and this library and catalogue are the most important of the four" [I]. Billings was responsible for this last accomplishment, and the National Library of Medicine which grew out of his early efforts serves as his monument. Least remembered of his important contributions, however, are his views on medical education and research which furnished the key to the revolution in these areas *E. Kennerly Marshall,Jr., professorof medicine, Thejohns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine ¦ Autumn 1977 | 35 which took place in Baltimore in 1 889 with the opening of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and in 1893 with the opening of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine [2-4]. Early Days Billings was born on April 12, 1838 in Cottontownship, Switzerland County, Indiana. He described his early life as "that of an ordinary farmer's boy," but he was soon quite sure that he did not want to be a farmer. Books were what interested the young Billings, and he read everything available to him. He made an arrangement with his father that in return for help to attend college, all ofthe family property should go to his sister and he would expect nothing more. Then obtaining some Greek books, a geometry book, and so forth he equipped himself to pass the entrance examination at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio which he did within a year (1852). Most of his time at Miami was spent reading books in the college library. His tastes were protean and he read everything in English that he could lay his hands on, including philosophy, theology, natural science, history, travels, and fiction. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami in 1857, graduating with the second honor in his class—the delivery of the Latin salutatory. Billings obtained testimonials from his professors as an aid in seeking employment as a tutor. The Greek professor described him as "a young man of very superior talents and excessive acquirements," and added, "I have observed, moreover, that he possesses great facility in communicating what he knows." This trait was clearly to be one of Billings's strongest assets in his subsequent career [2, p. 8]. In 1858 Billings entered the Medical College of Ohio in Cincinnati, the tenth medical college founded in this country. He financed this part of his education by residing in the hospital and later taking care of the...

This is a brief account of the author’s career beginning with his student days in the Department of Sociology, University of Chicago and the School of Public Health, University of Michigan. The following evaluation projects are summarized: the impact of an interstate highway on the Detroit Orthodox Jewish Community funded by the Michigan Department of Transportation; Healthy University Health Promotion Project funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation; Drug Use and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Demonstration funded by the DHHS Center for Substance Abuse; utilization of the Ryan White Care Act (HIV-AIDS) funded by DHHS Heath Resources and Services Administration; and National Environmental Health Action Plans in Europe funded by the World Health Organization/Europe.

The SRP held a very interesting meeting in June at the Daresbury Laboratory in Warrington on the social and political implications of communicating radiation risk. In today's risk-aware society, effective communication is just as important as the control measures introduced to prevent or restrict exposure.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a significant public health problem in South Africa. However, there is limited research on whether and how IPV changes during pregnancy and the postpartum period and on the factors that might affect women's risk during this time. In this study, we describe the mean trajectories of physical and psychological IPV during pregnancy and the postpartum period and examine whether relationship power, partner social support, and relationship stress are associated with women's trajectories of IPV. Data come from a longitudinal study with 1,480 women recruited during pregnancy between May 2008 and June 2010 at a public clinic in Durban. Women completed behavioral assessments at their first antenatal visit, at fourteen weeks and at nine months postpartum. Women's experiences of IPV were measured at all three time points and relationship power, partner social support and relationship stress were each measured at the baseline assessment. We used multilevel random coefficients growth modeling to build our models. The mean trajectory for both types of IPV was flat which means that, on average, there was not significant change in levels of IPV over pregnancy and the postpartum period. However, there was significant individual variability in trajectories of IPV over the study period. Women who had higher relationship power had lower levels of physical and psychological IPV over time than women with lower relationship power. Additionally, women with higher relationship stress and lower partner support had higher levels of psychological IPV at pregnancy. Interventions that maximize women's relationship power and partner social support and minimize relationship stress during this transformative time are needed.

Changing social policy: Grassroots to legislation

Cancer registries are information systems that enable easy and efficient collection, organization and utilization of data related to cancer patients for the purpose of epidemiological research, evidence based medicine and planning of public health policies. Our research focuses on developing a web-based system which incorporates aspects of both cancer registry information systems and medical imaging informatics, in order to provide decision support and quality control in external beam radiation therapy. Integrated within this system is a knowledge base composed of retrospective treatment plan data sets of 42 patients, organized in a systematic fashion to aid query, retrieval and data mining. A major cornerstone of our system is the use of DICOM RT data sets as the building blocks of the database. This offers enormous practical advantages since it establishes a framework that can assimilate data from different treatment planning systems and across institutions by making use of a widely used standard – DICOM. Our system will help clinicians to assess their dose volume constraints for prospective patients. This is done by comparing the anatomical configuration of an incoming patient’s tumor and surrounding organs, to that of retrospective patients in the knowledge base. Treatment plans of previous patients with similar anatomical features are retrieved automatically for review by the clinician. The system helps the clinician decide whether his dose/volume constraints for the prospective patient are optimal based on the constraints of the matched retrospective plans. Preliminary results indicate that this small-scale cancer registry could be a powerful decision support tool in radiation therapy treatment planning in IMRT.